A Lesson in Troubling Antagonists
by kate-7h
Summary: 'Abed was barely aware of what exactly was happening. Sure, they'd said mean things before, an occasional shove in the hall. They did those because they were easy to get away with. Never had they really tried to hurt him. It didn't fit into this plot of his life. They were breaking pattern. It didn't make sense.' Abed, as a child, experiences bullying. WARNING: Some violence


A/N: **WARNING** again, this has partially graphic bullying in it (as much as I could stomach writing). Poor little Abed.  
By the way, if you watch 1x11, the Christmas one where that mustache guy pushes the plate of cookies in Abed's hands. Abed was so excited that Jeff stood up for him, ass if no one had ever done that for him. So, out came this idea... I'm a terrible person.

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Abed sat patiently at his table. His eyes wandered with boredom over the classroom which was covered with the colorful projects he and his classmates had made out of construction paper and glue. Those were fun days. The days they actually did things things other than fill out words in their workbooks. Most of the time it was really easy. He'd already seen everything the workbook taught in everything from _Bill Nye_ or _Magic School Bus_. His pencil moved across the page and was finished before most of the kids, except for the 'telling time' part. Abed had always had trouble with that.

While he puzzled away, math swirling in his head as he tried to complete the clock, he glanced at the boy seated next to him. Kyle, the typical bully trope with a range from Ace Merrill to Flash Thompson. Kyle mostly ignored Abed in class, but during recess was when he like to have his fun. Abed watched as he picked his nose with his fingers. he didn't look big like most bullies in movies, but it didn't make him any less mean. And that was okay, Abed could handle people talking mean to him.

Though Abed couldn't read the clock on the wall, he could tell it was almost time for recess. The other kids who _could _read the way three little lines looped around weirdly spaced numbers were looking more frequently. That must mean something. Ms. Pratchett, their teacher, was talking about the caterpillar one of his classmates had found and was sitting in a jar with some leaves and little holes cut into the top. She waved her arms around and explained that one day it would become a butterfly. _Spoilers. _Abed shook his head at her and stared at the far wall. Elementary school was different to how he'd expected. More realistically, he should've been going off of how school was in _Boy Meets World, _but Abed couldn't help wishing he had that small class that bonded over many misadventures in a magic bus and had an insane teacher who taught them everything there was to know about the universe.

No such luck. The very class he sat in had about twenty students, and their teacher had a plain brown dress with her straight hair pulled back into a ponytail. It wasn't even frizzy at all. And They had a caterpillar, not a lizard. They didn't even go on field trips all that often.

The bell rang and everyone jumped up out of their seats. Abed squeezed his way out the classroom door, which wasn't hard to do. He was really tiny for a eight-year-old kid. The class followed Ms. Pratchett down the hall to the outside. Once that door opened, Abed zoomed out as quick as he could. There had been a pattern ramp-up in bullying during recess, Abed being the main focus of Kyle and his booger-faced friends. The likelihood of that happening went down if they couldn't find him.

Abed darted as fast as he could across the yard until he came to the monkey bar dome. He let his shoes skid in the dirt like Benny Rodriguez making a home run. Abed sat on the ground and pulled himself in through one of the openings. Only the smaller kids get in and out easily, 'the most fun is climbing to the top,' was the lie the teachers told to make it sound fair. Abed sat back against the bars, the cold sand beneath his jeans and shoes. He smiled to himself because that day _he'd won._

But Abed was wrong. A hand reached through the bars and grabbed him by the collar of his _Batman_ T-shirt. Abed started and twisted in his shirt to face his attacker. Kyle and four other boys were standing over him through the copper colored bars. There were no recess monitors around to see what was happening.

"'Member what I said yesterday, dweeb?" Kyle grunted, shaking a fist full of Abed's shirt.

Abed nodded, "Yes. You said 'Tomorrow I'm gonna make you eat sand.'"

Kyle stared at him for a moment, then blinked and and sneered, "Yeah, and since you ran straight here we won't have to drag you across the playground. Seth said we would, but either is fun, right?"

"No. Not really," Abed said blatantly.

Without warning, Kyle yanked on Abed's shirt, slamming his face against the bars of the dome. Abed's eyes went wide as he let out a startled squeak. His small fists flew up to where Kyle was gripping him, though he didn't fight back. They were clenched so tight his fingernails dug into his palms.

"Get in there and grab him. I've got him," Kyle barked at the others. Two of them climbed between the bars and grabbed Abed from behind. Kyle released his front as the kids roughly dragged him farther from the edge of the dome, farther out of sight. They hadn't even given him time to stand up. Surrounding him were five mean looking boys in the shade of the monkey bar dome.

Abed was barely aware of what exactly was happening anymore. Sure, they'd said mean things before, an occasional shove in the hall. They did those because they were easy to get away with. Never had they really tried to _hurt _him. Abed could already feel bruising starting to form on his face were the bar had impacted. Those boys were seriously planning on hurting him. It didn't fit into this plot of his life. They were breaking pattern. It didn't make sense. Abed's eyes flicked wildly between each of the boys, their circling and laughter just like hyenas. Abed's panic grew.

Their laughter died almost instantaneously as Abed's muted cry became more and more audible. Abed stared at nothing, shutting out his surroundings. The boys who were holding his arms let go and backed away, "What's wrong with him?"

Abed's fists raised up to his temples, his scream becoming louder and more shrill.

Kyle stepped forward, nervous, "Shut up! Hey, dweeb! Shut up or I'll make you shut up!"

Abed didn't respond, just increased in volume. Without another word, Kyle kicked Abed in the stomach. Abed yelped, his head landing in the cold playground sand. Kyle didn't stop there. He kept kicking long after Abed had stopped screeching. The other four boys stood around the 'fight' in a circle, fidgeting as unease settled over them.

At last the bell indicating that recess was over rung. The boys ran, leaving Abed alone crumpled under the copper mesh. He lay unmoving curled around his stomach. His mind was racing, trying to find some sort of explanation, comfort. There was none. Nothing he could think of made any of this better. Abed stared at the space ahead of him, perhaps always looking somehow make his present better. His mind flashed to the tall white door that had closed behind his mother, the door that didn't open again to revealing her coming back with a hug.

Maybe looking forward to the future instead of accepting the present was a lie. If it were true his blood wouldn't be dribbling down from his nose and integrated in the sand.

Over the sound of his rapid heart beating, Abed could hear people calling his name. He didn't respond, he couldn't. His whole body hurt from the beating and his head hurt from his thinking too hard. _This wasn't supposed to happen. Not like that. Only mean words were in the script. _Everyone else was supposed to ignore him, more or less. Them calling out for him, looking for him. It didn't make any sense.

A teacher he didn't recognize was suddenly standing over the dome. She must've been one the older grades teachers who had lunch after their recess. The teacher turned around and began swinging her arms until another teacher approached.

"Abed? Are you okay? What happened? Can you crawl out of there?"

Abed just stared ahead. His clenched hands wouldn't move. The teachers were going to get impatient and leave him there alone again. Teachers always got impatient with him. The other kids too. He either talked too much or not enough, he could never find the balance they like it best. Maybe he was asking for the bullying. But Abed didn't want to be left alone. He didn't want that at all, even if he couldn't open his mouth to tell the teachers that.

"Alright, I'm going in," one of the teachers said.

"This is for little kids. You sure you don't wanna get someone else, Edith?"

Edith bounced her shoulders, "Well, he needs help now, so."

Abed's eyes followed her as she found the biggest hole to climb in. She squeezed through, tugging at her skirt as she crawled to where the boys had dragged Abed. Abed always thought the dome was pretty big, but Edith's head nearly brushed the top as she crouched beside him. Weird.

Edith pulled Abed by his shoulders and rolled him into her lap. Abed groaned a little as the movement flashed pain throughout his torso where Kyle had kicked him. He glanced down at his Batman shirt; damp sand was ground into it. Abed sighed.

"It's okay, Abed. You're gonna be just fine," Edith lifted him into her arms, which wasn't hard at all. He was always absolutely slight. He couldn't have weighed more than seventy pounds. She carried him to the hole she had crawled through and, as gently as she could, handed him off to the other woman.

Abed closed his eyes as Edith brushed his hair from his face. He shut the memories of the day away as they carried him back to school.

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A/N: Thanks for reading, reviews are much appreciated; I like to know what you guys think


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